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Frederick William I ("the Soldier King"), Instructions on the Formation and Functioning of the General Directory (December 20, 1722)

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[Para. 5 deals with questions of precedence. In general, members of the Directory take precedence immediately below Privy Councillors.]

6. When vacancies occur in the staff of the Directory, the five Ministers are to propose candidates to fill them.

7. But they must be men as able as can be found in the length and breadth of the country, of Evangelical-Reformed or Lutheran religion, loyal and honest, with open minds, who understand agriculture and have themselves practiced it, are well informed on commerce, manufacture and kindred subjects and also able to express themselves on paper, and, above all, must have been born Our subjects, although, as regards the last point, if someone were proposed who was a foreigner but very able, we might allow one or two such persons admission to Our Directory. But to put the above and other necessary qualities in a nutshell, they must be men capable of carrying out any duty entrusted to them.

[ . . . ]

[Paras. 8 and 9 list the qualifications required of presidents and councillors of the provincial commissariats and chambers.]

10. Employees of the Provincial Chambers must be good agriculturalists, who have themselves been farmers and local agents and themselves substantial leaseholders, also capable of expressing themselves on paper and of keeping accounts, wide-awake and sound men.

11. Further, the following system shall be followed in the making of new appointments to fill vacancies occurring in the Provincial Commissariats and Chambers. When a vacancy occurs in Prussia, the persons proposed to Us by the General Directory to fill it shall be natives of Cleves, the Mark, or Pomerania, but not Prussians.

In the Commissariats and Chambers of Cleves, natives of Prussia, the Mark, or Magdeburg, but not of Cleves.

In Pomerania, Prussians or natives of Cleves or Magdeburg, but not Pomeranians.

In Magdeburg and Halberstadt, natives of the Mark, Cleves, or Prussia, but not of Magdeburg or Halberstadt.

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